1. Director-General for Latin American and Caribbean Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jo Yung-joon will attend a Special Troika Meeting of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), which will take place in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, on May 16 and 17 to prepare for the 9^th FEALAC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to be held in the second half of the year 2019.

° FEALAC, the only multilateral inter-governmental consultative mechanism between East Asia (16 countries) and Latin America (20 countries), has played a role in promoting mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation between the two regions since its launch in 1999. 

※ The FEALAC Troika, formally launched in 2016 as proposed by the Republic of Korea, is a high-level consultative mechanism composed of the previous, current and next Regional Coordinators for East Asia and Latin America. Its upcoming Meeting will bring together delegates of the Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Lao People's Democratic Republic from East Asia; and the Dominican Republic, the Republic of Costa Rica, and the Republic of Guatemala from Latin America.

2. In the forthcoming meeting, the participants will discuss the direction of the deliverables of the 9^th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to be held in the Dominican Republic around November as well as ways to improve the operational system of FEALAC, which marks its 20^th anniversary this year, and to increase achievements from FEALAC cooperation.

° The Special Troika Meeting will come as the ROK government proposed holding the Meeting at the 19^th FEALAC Senior Officials’ Meeting held in Lao PDR in November 2018. The ROK government, as the host of the 8^th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, plans to put forward ways to strengthen the function and role of FEALAC, to create momentum for a new leap forward for the organization, which marks its 20^th anniversary, and thereby to contribute to its dynamic development.

3. The forthcoming Special Troika Meeting is expected to serve as an opportunity for the six countries, which lead FEALAC discussions as the representatives of East Asia and Latin America, to discuss in depth the progress in the preparations for the 9^th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to take place in 2019 and the direction of its deliverables, as well as ways to advance FEALAC in order to obtain tangible benefits that people of the FEALAC member states can see for themselves.

* unofficial translation